Dear friends

Dear Friends,

If you have received this message, then you are an important person in my life. Since you know me, you also know that I am passionate about writing, yoga, art and my family. I’m not a public figure or an activist, but a recent trip abroad somehow jolted me out of the complete denial about climate change in which I have been living for years. I feel astonished by my own blindness and complacency, but I also look around and see how hard it is for so many of us to choose the painful truth over the seduction of thinking that our children will be adults in the same world that we have inhabited.

It’s no surprise that I received this wake-up call outside of Argentina, the country that I love but whose political and economic crises hypnotize its residents into believing that these are the only true crises. I can only imagine how Brexit, Bolsonaro and Trump distract millions of people from pouring their energy and wits into significant projects (other than the hysteria of the news cycle).

In London, I went to Olafur Eliasson’s show In Real Life and was stunned by the brilliant dialogue he creates around the vital issue of climate. I also bought the new book We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer, which lays out a very simple plan of action (stop eating animal products and supporting the industrial farms that destroy our planet and create antibiotic resistance), but Foer also describes why climate change is so hard to accept and the psychological forces that keep us in denial. In London, I bought vegetable milk whose carbon footprint was printed on the package. I listened to Greta’s speech to the UN, along with those of other young activists of many colors and from many countries. My daughter Justina, a passionate environmentalist, called me after the speeches to say, “Mom, the world is going to be uninhabitable by the time I’m 32!”

All of a sudden, and way too late, I understood that I have to change how I live. Right now. My first major change involves investing in ethical and sustainable companies, as opposed to the major corporations whom I have falsely tasked with the future prosperity of my children. I divested of oil a while ago, but that’s a minor detail if you consider the (non) environmental practices of most major US companies. Some people are doing things differently, and they deserve our money and attention. To be inspired, listen to Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber:

I also have to change what and how I consume (water, electricity, food, plastic), how and when I travel (much less), and where I put my intellectual, physical and emotional energy. And that’s why I’m writing to you. Part of our inability to respond adequately to climate change grows from a mistaken notion that we are powerless. Our personal decisions can’t make a difference when Trump and Bolsonaro and the Koch brothers rule the world. But one teenage girl has initiated a massive wake-up call to this emergency. The UN has just released a report that we have 10 years to make changes before climate change becomes irreversible. And every personal decision matters and every personal conversation can help someone else make better choices. Kindness, right now, is the essential ingredient in helping each other. Compassion for our own children and grandchildren can fuel our actions. The poet and envinronmentalist Gary Snyder has advised us not to save the earth out of guilt or self-righteousness but out of love.

In his book, Jonathan Safran Foer talks about not wanting to “the downer” at a dinner party, the guy who raises the issue of climate change and sends everyone into a panic. This subject is so overwhelming, so frightening that we prefer to live in denial (even though we separate ourselves from the actual deniers, in the same way that we prefer not to contemplate the mechanics of the Holocaust, though we don’t negate its historical truth). We also hope that maybe things won’t be so bad in the country where we live, or maybe we even believe that our material wealth can save us. Science indicates that these are pipe dreams. They are also predicated on the savage notion that it’s ok for everyone else to die.

Here’s Foer:

So, I am writing to remind you of your own power. You are constituents, business owners, teachers, IT whizzes, artists, photographers, writers, journalists, coders, architects, scientists, doctors, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, editors, master yoga teachers, eminent scholars, humanitarian activists, administrators, volunteers. Every day, we have the choice to make countless decisions to help reverse this crisis and to help others wake up to the emergency with which we have been tasked. We didn’t want this to happen, but we are intricately bound in this crisis. It is as close as our skin, as the air we breathe.

I recently remembered a story by Haruki Murakami called “Superfrog Saves Tokyo.” I recommend reading it as a an easier way to understand our era and its challenges. Just as we experience in our struggle to address climate change, the protagonist in Murakami’s story has to imagine that which seems inconceivable:

“The whole terrible fight occurred in the area of imagination. That is the precise location of our battlefield. It is there that we experience our victories and our defeats.”

In order to make these changes, we have to believe, we have to imagine what the scientists are telling us, what thousands of activists are begging us to understand. I know that it’s hard, but I also know that it’s real.

So, there you go. I have been the downer. But I hope that you can read this in the spirit of love that connects us, the love that I feel for my children and that you feel for yours, for the possibility of their future. I never wanted to dedicate my time to this issue, but it’s impossible to ignore. I have been remiss in every possible way, but my ten-year-old daughter gets it. Please listen to her. Let’s move beyond fear and into love. I look forward to what we can do together.

In hope,

Julia

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